Sven Jacobs (DE)

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Already changes to the new German law on hate speech on social media on the horizon?

By Sven Jacobs (DE) on March 20, 2018 Posted in General

After being in force for merely ten weeks, the German law requiring social media companies to quickly remove hate speech from their sites (Network Enforcement Act – NetzDG) may soon be revised following criticism that too much online content is being blocked.… Continue reading

Who is responsible for fan sites?

By Sven Jacobs (DE) on December 7, 2017 Posted in Privacy

The Advocate General to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) Yves Bot caused a sensation with his unexpected opinion concerning the admissibility of social media fanpages under EU data protection law. According to the opinion of Mr. Bot, the operator of a social media fanpage is “jointly responsible for the processing and … Continue reading

Germany considers € 50 million fines for social media sites failing to remove hate speech

By Sven Jacobs (DE) on April 28, 2017 Posted in Defamation

The German Justice Ministry has introduced a draft law that would impose fines of up to €50 million on social media companies that fail to remove hate speech and other illegal content from their platforms quickly. The fines would be imposed whenever social media companies do not remove online threats, hate speech, or slanderous fake … Continue reading

Liability for Hyperlinks: German Court Increases Responsibility of Website Operators

By Sven Jacobs (DE) on January 20, 2017 Posted in Copyright

The Regional Court of Hamburg recently applied for the first time the new decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) regarding the liability for hyperlinks and further increased the risks and responsibilities for social media website operators. The EU Court Decision The CJEU held in September 2016 that using a hyperlink … Continue reading

Germany orders Facebook to stop collecting WhatsApp user data

By Sven Jacobs (DE) on October 25, 2016 Posted in Privacy

The Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Hamburg DPA) recently issued an administrative order prohibiting Facebook from collecting and storing user data of German WhatsApp users. The Hamburg DPA also ordered Facebook to also delete all data that has already been forwarded to Facebook by WhatsApp.… Continue reading

Germany: Can you be sued for tweeting #Rio2016?

By Sven Jacobs (DE) on August 18, 2016 Posted in Trademark

The answer depends on who you are: For consumers there is little risk involved. Companies, however, did receive letters by the German Olympic Committee in recent weeks warning them about stealing intellectual property, similar to the letters send by the United States Olympic Committee. In particular Twitter accounts should not reference any Olympic results, share … Continue reading

German competition authorities initiate proceeding against Facebook

By Sven Jacobs (DE) on May 19, 2016 Posted in Privacy

Facebook became the latest American technology company to face antitrust hurdles in Europe after the German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt), a competition authority, opened an investigation into whether Facebook Inc., USA, Facebook Ireland Limited and Facebook Germany GmbH abused their alleged dominant position in social networking by violating data protection laws. Accordingly, unlike other proceedings … Continue reading